apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I used to live near a Christmas tree farm in Connecticut: acres and acres of pines in neat rows, from tiny to large. If not for the lucrative Christmas tree market, I'm sure that land would have been turned into a strip mall.

If it's not going to be real - I think I'd rather just have a vintage 50's silver tinsel tree...

If eco-friendliness is the top criteria, maybe we just should give up decorating at all, or only use our heirloom ornaments without a tree of any kind.

These options are all interesting and sterile. They are sculpture, not festive holiday traditions. And they all look fragile enough to be a problem to store and keep -- the jig-saw plywood ones will start losing segments the first time someone (or their pet) bumps into them.

I figure my reusable fake evergreen is good for years and years, and as much as I love real trees, it's less of a fire hazard and mess, and it's not killing yet another CO2 recycling plant. So, even though many people hate them, that's my compromise for life, celebration, and the environment. (It looks amazing loaded with my lifetime of collected ornaments, too!)

I don't really care or decorate for Xmas, I don't have any familial obligations toward it other than sending gifts and talking to everyone on the phone (which is more than I'd rather, even at a bare minimum). I have some really nice classic ornaments including original shiny-brite, so every five years, give or take, I go get a real tree so I can hang my ornaments on it.

Let me correct this.

Cutting down the trees is far more eco-friendly than using fake ones, because the materials needed to make them create more pollution. PLUS, you can't recycle them.

And frankly, the new "trees" are hideous.

Love the flat-pack tree!

KTG = scrooge. If talking to everyone on the phone is such a chore, why do it? Just tell your family and friends the truth: you hate them and everyone else in the world, and don't care about Christmas. Happy holidays!

I would rather have a Charlie Brown tree over any of these. Imagine decorating one of these with your children. Lifeless.

Hey Griffin, will you be my new family? XO, K T G
There is nothing I love about this crazy time, which is what it is. Everyone gets mental. I don't get it.

I have and probably always will be a minimalist. My taste in art, home decor, and clothing is all about no-fuss/no frills and simplicity. I also don't care much for decorating at the holidays because of my limited free time and the amount of money and resources involved. I would much rather spend quality time with friends and family rather than using up my energy and several hours of the day trying to get the decorations "just so." These tree options are very appealing to me - cool, clean and modern - and I appreciate the post! Thanks!

We've been doing folk art trees for a number of years. One year it was three dowel rods leaning in tree shape covered in chicken wire (so we could hang up favorite ornaments) and lights. One year it was a spiral of lights suspended from the ceiling. One year it was a plywood contraption with interlocking pieces that I covered in tissue paper, family photo stickers, and art representing our favorite ornaments.

Last year it was two giant ferns my mom rescued from the street and covered in white lights and red bows.

On real, only real, and a living tree you can keep is great, but not everyone can do that.

Nothing says magical holiday splendor like cardboard.

similar to the flat pack tree but smaller/cheaper:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=99779

I just received this Muji christmas tree as a gift and find it lovely:

http://www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?V=1&Sec=8&Sub=48&PID=2744

Love the little ply tree, it would be lots of fun to decorate with ribbons, twine and handmade decorations. Just because these come out of the box plain, there's no rule that they have to stay that way! Use your imagination people!

I get so bombarded by Christmas decorations everywhere I go for 2 months that I just want to keep it out of my home. Holidays have become just another way to tell people you need to buy more stuff in order to be happy. Sometimes I will put up something seasonal like a pine branch and a few beaded snowflakes.

"Nothing says magical holiday splendor like cardboard."

Hahahahahahaha....

Well the cat needs her own Xmas tree.

Anyway, I guess in too abrupt a way, it sounds like I hate Christmas and I hate people and I hate having reminders of Christmas... my family sucks at Christmas on account of it being hyped up the way it culturally is, and the pressure and ensuing fallout. I still love them and want to give them presents, and culture still obligates me to make the effort to give and communicate on a particular timetable, but I'm done with visits. I do Thanksgiving, that is nice. I would rather all the rest of you wouldn't be so grumpy and unXmasy the rest of the year, it really bums me out. Take all the power and mystique and generous flavor of Xmas and ration it out over the year instead of forcing it all at once. Some of us just wouldn't rather it take the form it has.

I hear you, KTG. Why do people force it if they don't bother with or can't stand each other the rest of the year?

I don't know about the comments here about fake trees being less environmentally friendly than the real ones. I guess it all depends on how long you keep your fake.

I have a charmingly ugly fake Christmas tree from the 50s or 60s (it's probably loaded with lead, but I don't have kids and my cat and dog aren't stupid enough to try to eat it). My grandparents bought it and gave it to my mom when she moved out. She was getting ready to throw it away one year, but I begged her not to - and to give it to me instead.

So every year, the weekend after Thanksgiving, my husband and I pull the tree out of its box in our storage closet (we still have the original box, though taped together), and put it together.

No one can convince me that keeping a fake tree in a family for 40 years is not environmentally friendly. Not when that means another tree gets to stay in the ground and help provide shelter for animals, shade, and oxygen.

(It saves me and the hubby money, too.)

Hey, only you can choose how you act and react this time of year.

I choose to enjoy the holidays. From Christmas to Kwanza to the rude drivers on the road to the wonderful people ringing the Salvation Army bell, I think the months of Nov and Dec are pretty damn fun.

Sure I have some screwy family stuff like most people but who doesn't. I love 'em unconditionally and what better time of year to set differences aside and spread some good cheer.

So, back to these fake trees, I say if you like em and they fit your holiday style, go for it and enjoy!

"I think I'd rather just have a vintage 50's silver tinsel tree..."

bepsf- Totally agree. Love the silver tinsel trees.

VERY intrigued by the plywood tree! Wonder how flat it packs down? I tried real (preferred) and fake (horrible and depressing), but this one is more like sculpture--not faux nylon & aluminum pretending to be a tree.

I could also go for a silver tinsel tree, but I'm so clumsy I'd probably scratch the heck outta myself putting it up.

Gotta say I've got a little tinsel tree from Urban Outfitters in lime green (the 2' one). I've had it for years and every year it goes in a window (on a stool) with one red ornament on it.

My family did the real tree all growing up. And they did it big: 8' gazillions of ornaments... it all became too much for me. I love the christmas cheer, but so much of the 'stuff' is unnecessary to get into the spirit.

i have a conical trellis that resides in my garden during the summer. in the fall i bring it indoors and then twine plain white lights through it for the holidays.

since i don't actually celebrate xmas until January, i don't have to worry about dropped needles or recycling something plastic...

I love Christmas but sometimes feel overwhelmed by the Martha Stewartiness of putting up an elaborate Christmas tree. So I don't. I have three great tiny vintage trees (you know the type -- the ones with glitter and little shiny balls stuck to them) I put on my mantel. My older sister, who in person is a source of major holiday stress, is a very talented wood-carver. About fifteen years ago, she carved a large Norwegian-style Santa for me. Santa gets taken out of his box after Thanksgiving and put on the mantle.

My holiday decorating is then complete. It's old fashioned, it's charming, and best of all, it's not overdone.

I keep it Simple, I'am in retail so I get plenty of the holiday glitz at work.

So for my small place I do a nice bowl filled with ornaments or pine cones on the coffee table

RE: silver tinsel trees.
I started life over last Jan....no kids, no spouse and all the Christmas ornaments have been divided up and given to the now grown progeny as seeds for their own collections. I found a wonderful little silver tinsel tree on sale at Target and snapped it up. Now the season is upon us and I am wondering how to decorate it? Im thinking of something simple: White satin bows tied to the ends of random branches, maybe? or bright colored satin ornaments all one shape?
I've had the "lifetime collection of random ornaments" trees. Now I'd like something elegant and put together.
Ideas?
Thanks

I think people do blue with silver or pink and candy pastels, but I like the idea of green with silver. The tree "supposed to be green" only the ornaments can be that bright Christmas green on a silver tree. Or maybe a little snowbirdy thing theme.

Retro shaped ornaments like the shiny brites or if you have any handed-down original shiny brites or similar of that era (I happen to and assume most people over a certain age have a few that didn't break if they didn't already give them away), you can build off that also. The ones with the indentations and the tear-shaped and bell-shaped are very happy to live with plain round ornaments you just got at the drugstore. Small silver with white frost glitter are good also for the elegant look if you want it with no additional colors.

Mabith...I loved the ideas you shared of the trees you have made in the past. I would absolutely love to see some photos of these! Your trees sound like they would also be very fun for children to help make/decorate.

We have a gold metal tree that's hard to describe. We've only used it instead of a real tree once - last year I decorated it with my Swedish ornaments and it was cute (but not cozy).
The combo of all primary colors, wood and white was perfect.

This year, we'll get a real tree.

OK, it's the 5th image down from the top on this page.

http://www.christmascraftkit.com/catalog/index.php?catalog=Trees

My tree's a narrow 6-footer with pure white paper needles. Some years, I hang a bevy of bright flocked bluebirds and big flat silver snowflakes.

Other, I go for pop color with 4" hot pink, bubblegum pink, orange and cream balls and a fab orange tree topper (bought at store closeout -- two ladies peering into the box of orange tree toppers said "who would buy that?" just as I sailed by with one in my basket.)

KTG, thanks for the input. I do like the elegant look. I also like the idea of "retro" ornaments. Perhaps I'll poke around the local thrift stores and see what I can find.
holland,
Michaels arts and crafts have a line of very bright orange, magenta, purple, teal and lime green decorations. (I loved them but thought they might be just a bit much with the silver.) Nice to know someone else likes the bright colors as well.

My family never kept a tree, so it doesn't have much meaning for me. Still, to be festive, I usually hang a few ornaments on a house plant. Some years, it's the ficus, other times a rosemary plant (when I used to live someplace warmer). Once, in college, I brought a big branch home that had lots of arms and hung origami on it -- pretty nice, so long as you don't have pets to knock it over. And way cheaper than the choices shown above.

love them all, what a great idea to make it modren, fun, different and easy to see and be around. love this, thanks so much!

i finally got my own (fake, paper for leaves) x-mas tree last year & just a few basic ornaments to keep it simple & clean looking. i love it. but this year i have a crazy puppy & have yet to figure out where i can put the tree so that he wont demolish it or choke on an ornament that i'm sure he's bound to take down. maybe i'll hang a picture of a christmas tree?

We were just talking other day about making some sort of plywood tree that packs flat easy to assemble and can still hang ornaments on. I hate the thought of cutting down trees every year and I had the same fake tree for 12 years and now can not find one that is as pretty as the one I had.
PS When I was little we planted 1,000 fir trees on property we owned and today they are huge so that is why I can not do real it was a lot of work planting and years watching them grow.

Wow, reading these posts reminds me of the bitchy coworker at lunch today: "I hate the whole month of December!"

Except I used to feel that way too. Now I know that it's not all about me and my resentments and the shit-colored lenses through which I see the world. Look for what is good about people, about tradition, about what life offers. If you focus on the negative that's what you'll see all around you.

Is Christmas tree-farming more eco-friendly than making a metal sculpture-cum-"tree form"? I have to say the smell of pine in the house is lovely...

It is my prayer that, while counting the bounteous blessings bestowed upon you, you can find in this season, a lasting reason to be joyous.

From the gospel of Luke, Chapter 2, (King James Version):

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Happy Christmas!

My parents have owned their plastic Christmas tree for around 20 years. It would now be considered suitably retro to make it fashionable. My very own little plastic Christmas tree is only 3 years old, but I suspect he'll be around for many more years to come. If people actually want to delude themselves and think that a single plastic tree used for years on end is somehow more energy intensive than farming new trees every year, then we certainly have an issue.

This tress looks cool. I think I'm going to buy something this year. Check also out more 10 modern christmas tree alternatives. There some more good ones mentioned.